6mm civilian vehicles

Having recently returned to Battletech via the more streamlined Alpha Strike rules, I find myself in need of some 1/285 scale terrain suitable for the battlefields of the future. But even the 31st century has a need for construction equipment and delivery vehicles.

 

These castings were originally player tokens for Monopoly City that I had acquired in the process of building my Monopolis. For some reason, likely to resell them on eBay, I put them aside years ago. They came to light a couple of weeks ago as I was cleaning out my game room, and I noticed they fit in perfectly with the new battlemechs from Catalyst Game Labs. 

Some spray paint and a few details later, here we are! Anyone else using these minis?

Mining exploration ship

At long last, the newest addition to my merchant fleets is complete: This decommissioned warship is now being used as a mobile prospecting base and processing facility.   

Originally a Federation attack carrier built by the Valiant Enterprises shipyards, this vessel was commissioned during the Third Interstellar War and served for more than two centuries after that conflict ended. 

Now designated as the MV Dorsey, this ship retains its launch/recovery platforms, but the hangars that once held Shooting Star- and Solar Flare-class fighters now house single crew mining and prospecting vehicles, and weapons bays now contain industrial laboratories and processing equipment.  

The starship still retains the fore-mounted twin railguns, which have been modified to accelerate small ore shipments into transfer orbits.  

This is a neat model, but I can't say it was fun to put together. It came in four hull sections that I had to pin together to make sure they didn't come apart, and the various superstructure pieces and landing pads. The latter were problematic because they did not fit cleanly, and it took a lot of scraping to fit them into their slots.

Still, that's one more mini (and a spaceship, even!) that's done, and it will make a nice target for raiders in a future scenario. Till next time!

Ace space base Mace in place

I finally painted this Mace-class space station that I purchased some time ago. It had been sitting on the work table for awhile, so it was nice to get something done.

This Terran base is from Monday Knight Productions' Galactic Knights range (originally the Starfleet Wars line from Superior Models). It was a simple paint job: Spray black, drybrush in metallic black, metallic gunmetal gray, and metallic silver. If you look close, you can spot a dab or two of color here and there.

You can never have too many space miniatures, right?

Presenting the 433rd Lift Wing

The 433rd Lift Wing was one of the first North American Combine military units to purchase its own intellectual property and strike out as an independent mercenary organization during the Factory States Era. Focusing on mobility and logistics, the 433rd consists of the Lift Group and the Heavy Lift Group.

Heavy Lift Group has one independent flight (the Sea Monster-class ekranoplan) and two squadrons: the 136th (a single flight of two Kraken-class Ogre transport hovercraft) and the 712th (two flights of three Sea Steed-class LCACs). Lift Group has three squadrons: the 21st (two El-Dingar-class heavy GEV-PCs, the 56th (four Clydesdale-class hover transports), and the 78th (ditto). Although not a combat unit, the 433rd does have a single battery (two Centaur light artillery drones) for defending beachheads.  

I hope to see this unit in action for an aquatic assault scenario (Monopolis-by-the-Sea!) eventually. Meanwhile, I hope everyone is still doing something game related.

Hovertrucks

Some noncombatant hovertrucks from Steve Jackson Games for use as targets objectives in games of Ogre/GEV or other sci-fi combat.

I have a few more of these, along with some other transports, in a different paint scheme that I will show you later.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone is staying safe and working on minis.

Civilian spacecraft

For the first time, in a long time, I painted up a spacecraft mini.

The Conestoga-class colony vessel was originally designed for STL intrasystem travel, and constructed without artificial gravity systems. 

Counter-rotating sections of the vehicle used centripedal force to simulate gravity for passengers and crew. 

Although the sublight engines were eventually replaced with a Bachman-Turner overdrive for interstellar travel, it was not cost-effective to retrofit with agrav.

Although the photos are a little washed out, all in all I'm pleased with this nice little model that would not look out of place in a game of Galactic Knights.

Monopolis emergency response vehicles

So here are my emergency response vehicles for use with my Monopolis scenarios for Ogre. These units may be large, but they're still small compared to a Mark III-B cybertank.

This MASH unit was originally for use in Battletech, but it will work just fine for me as a medical evacuation vehicle. I like the look of this one; I just need to add some white detailing.

This Battletech coolant truck will serve as a Monopolis firefighting vehicle. I'm not happy with how it turned out--the drybrushing makes it look like the paint job was scuffed off--so I will probably redo it to match the ambulance, then add bright blue for the emergency lights and paint the water cannon some sort of chrome and brass.

These emergency response vehicles are larger than this NAC Ranger heavy tank. That's OK, though, considering all the destruction the Monopolis Fire & Rescue has to deal with. Maybe they can keep the damage under control.

Monopolis traffic report (civilian cars for Ogre)

These are 1/300 scale architectural models from a Chinese seller on eBay. I figured they would fit right in with the 1/285 Ogre miniatures, and I was right. They also look good next to the 1/285 military trucks.

I want to use these vehicles for more than just scatter terrain for my Monopolis setup for games of Ogre--although they will work great for set dressing. 

These tiny models were cheap enough that I bought 300 of them, so I can make roads jammed with traffic that will play a part in future battles around the city of Monopolis.

They should be easy to paint en masse: I will get several colors of spray paint and take care of them in large groups (after first spraying the undercarriages black). Maybe a wash to bring out the windshield and windows, and I'm done mass producing cars.

We got a great big convoy

I never did manage to grab the Last War Set 1: Convoy back when Steve Jackson Games was  still producing miniatures for Ogre. But now, thanks to the great customer service at Dibble's Hobbies in San Antonio, I have some 6mm trucks to use with my three-dimensional Iron Mountain Map and other Ogre scenarios that require transport vehicles.

Dibble's, a local hobby legend, carries microarmor as well as other gaming minis, so I went there on the off-chance that the store would have some transport vehicles in 1/285 scale.  I thought about ordering online, but I want to support my local shops, and I'm also an instant gratification kind of guy.

I didn't find anything on the store's shelves, but when I told the owner what I was looking for, he went into the back and brought out a dusty old ammo box filled with a modern microarmor collection that someone had sold to the store some time ago.

Bingo! He and I picked through that container and found a number of transport vehicles, all painted, and for a very reasonable price. I ended up with two HEMTTs, six deuce-and-a-halfs, and four larger trucks that I'm not sure what they are (in the center above).

These models came with a pretty nice paint job. All I need to do is paint the windshields and give them an ink wash, and they'll be ready to roll.

And they fit in well with the Ogre minis, which as you can see are pretty big compared to the trucks--which makes sense, because in-universe that Jaeger is a heavy tank compared to the MBTs of the early 21st century. And putting a duce-and-a-half next to a Mark V shows you how massive those cybertanks would be in real life.

So who wants to play out Iron Mountain and see if that convoy can make it across the map?  Big Ben, this here's the Rubber Duck, and I'm about to put the hammer down ....

Alien hyperspace subs

I finished a couple of spaceships for the first time in a long, long time.  It's wasn't anything complicated--just a couple of alien hyperspace submarines from the Stardate: 3000 line of miniatures.

I painted these to match the Federation subs and the other ships in my Slannish Treasure fleet (three drybrushes: metallic antique copper, metallic copper, and metallic Inca gold). 

I really like the detailing on these models.  No obvious weaponry, but a lot of mechanisms dedicated to the engines.  These are smugglers' ships.

These craft will mainly see use as scenario objectives (i.e., targets) in various games, as part of a convoy.  Here's to more spaceship painting and gaming in the new year!

Sunday Starships: Star Frontiers vessels

I finished (mostly) two Star Frontiers Federation warships, a destroyer and a battleship.  I painted these to match the rest of the craft in my Vogon Construction Fleet.

I was in a hurry to post these as part of a self-imposed blogging goal for the year, so they're not quite complete. 

The ink wash is still wet, and I need to go back and touch up the models.  I also need to paint the stands black.

The photos make the orange appear thicker than it looks in person, so I may have to add another layer of paint in spots.  I also might have to apply another ink wash, to bring out the details some more.

Still, these will go nicely with the rest of my Vogons, a mishmash of spaceships from various miniatures lines.  In-game, they will serve as a mercenary unit or civilian objective.

Sunday Starships: More Vogons

Some more units for my Vogon Construction Fleet.  Like my previous batch, these are from the Stardate: 3000 line.

This time, I painted them in  a darker shade of orange, after dusting the gray-primed minis with a bit of white spraypaint to lighten them a little.  They also got a brown ink wash, and some highlighting with a lighter shade of orange.

Some of the bases still need to be painted black, but I wanted to share these with you.  I like the way these came out.  Now to get them in a game ...

Vogon Construction Fleet

I painted some more Stardate: 3000 minis, this time in the high-visibility color of the Vogon Construction Fleet.  Unfortunately, I think I used too light a shade.

The large vessel is a Federation Draco-class destroyer.  The pair of smaller craft are alien interceptors, Federation recognition name Vampire.  The trio of fighter-sized ships are alien Banshee-class scouts.

Although the orange looks bright in some of these photos, in person the color appears washed out and faded.  For future reference, any spaceships painted in Vogon orange should be primed white instead of dark gray.  Unfortunately, I've already sprayed the remaining ships with the gray primer.

The larger vessel is intended for clearing shipping lanes of obstructions such as asteroids.  The  smaller craft provide security for the larger vessels as they work.

These were a test run; I have several more vessels to paint for this faction, including a couple of Star Frontiers ships.  And I'll use a darker shade of orange.